CHRISTMAS IS CLOSE!! I still can´t believe it!

The apron that I got in the mail as a
surprise from Jeannine Malwitz!
It is sooo cute!!

So this week we got to know Emily and Sara!! They are wonderful!!! They are going to get baptized this Saturday with their cousin in the other ward!! They are super excited!! Funny story, Sunday they were sleeping so we went to their house and woke them up and brought them to church. Good thing!!! The young women here are wonderful!!! They all exchanged addresses and phone numbers and I´m already excited for them!!! :D They are adorable!! I´ll send pictures of the baptism next week!!!

We also are working with 3 other families and a couple other people but none of them went to church on Sunday :/ So we are going to keep working with them this week to see if they truly are the Lord´s elect!!

My present from Marcos, Patrícia
and João Pedro :D
They know me soo well :D
It was great to see them this week!!!

Aurecí and Manuel are doing great!!! They already want to go to the temple!!! yayyyy

I saw Marcos, Patrícia and João Pedro and Kalel this week!! They went to one of the Cantatas!!! I cried while they walked in while I was trying to sing!!! Crazy right???? They are amaizng and super strong!!!! I also saw Emily and she is adorbale as always!! 

We also wen to Belas Artes and the members wouldn´t let me leave!! They were trying to hide me in the rooms and I almost missed the bus to go back home!! haha

The SUPER MINI cookies I made!!! 

So last night we watched a re-broadcast of the Christmas devotional. Wow, was the choir fantastic!!! It was amazing to hear the Christ story and feel His love for me! I loved the entire devotional and if you haven´t watched it yet, it is worth the time!!! 

Response to Dad's question about the Cantatas that they have been performing....

So about 50 missionaries are singing a Cantata for Natal. There is a flautist and 2 violinists, and 2 narators and a live manger scene. We practiced during p-days for about 2 months and we have 15 presentations throughout the mission. The point is to invite all of the neighbors of the chapels to have a reason to enter and learn bmore about the church!!! It has been going really well!! We have one more weekend with 4 performances and then we are done. The Cantata is about 35 minutes and we have a prelude that is 20 minutes because we guessed that people would sohw up late, BEST IDEA EVER! I was inchagre of the prelude. We have 6 songs. 2 violin duets, 2 violin solos (all the violin songs with piano) a piano duet and a quartet singing acapella. Sis. Sweet and I play the piano together on all the songs, and we also sing in the quartet haha. It is fun!!!!

It was a lot of work, but everyone has LOVED it! And it has been great to go back to my old areas and see evryone again :D

Stay strong and SMILE :D

Love you all

Sister Peterson

The chocolate on top is a chocolate chip,
so the cookie is just a little bit bigger than
a normal sized chocolate chip :D

Lots of Singing!!!!!

So this week flew by!!!!!

We are working with Maria, a recent converts girlfriend. She is about 65 or 70, and she takes care of her grandkids a lot, so she still hasn´t come to church, but she is AWESOME! She doesn´t know how to read, but we are helping her with that too!!! We are going to help her to get ready to be baptized on the 20th! It is going to be amazing :D

We found some other new people to teach but they didn´t come to church on Sunday :/ but we aren´t going to lose faith! The Lord makes everything work out! We just have to believe that!

Aurecí and Manuel are doing great!!! We had a special P-day lunch with them today!! It was a blast!! They are awesome and Manuel is excited to be interviewed for the priesthood!! He understands everything so well!!!

We had 3 Cantatas this weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday!!! I´m super tired from all the traveling and singing, but it has been so good!! Our 20 min prelude and the cantata get better each time! We always get there early to see if the piano is good and how we are going to set everything up and in that time I am learning to play the violin!!! :D It sounds super bad when I play and I have terrible form, but it´s only been 2 days so I can´t expect to be professional :D There have been a ton of non-members that have come and it has been an amazing way to share the true meaning of Christmas with these people :D

Bus ride to Bertioga for the
Christmas Cantata!!!

Stay happy and look for opportunities to share the gospel!!! You can use the church sites, videos (He is the Gift is AMAZING) and books and everything!!! Share the BEST GIFT of Christmas this year with those you hold dear!!

I love you all!!!

Sister Peterson

Pictures!

So we were going to buy mangos from this Truck and Sis. Calleja saw one of her ex-investigators from another area. We only had 4 reais so the guy said we could buy 5 HUGE mangos! So we were choosing them when this guy came up and asked how much was a box of mangos. The seller aid it was 10 reais, the guy pulled out 10 reais gave it to the seller and said, the girls will take them!!! So we got a HUGE box of 15 HUGE mangos for free!!!!! Then Sis Tabraj wanted oranges and it was a HUGE SACK of oranges I think there were about 35 BIG oranges in it for 5 reais!!! So we got all of this for 5 reais!! What a deal :D Mommy would be proud!

So the poor Butterfly had a broken wing!!
So we decided to pick it up :D

Weddings, Baptisms, and goodness :D

SO This week was amazing!!!

Aurecí and Manuel got married, baptized and confirmed!!! Talk about AMAZING!!!!!! They were truly prepared by the Lord!! They are amazing and we are excited to keep teaching them and helping them learn more and grow closer to God. 

We also had 2 cantatas this weekend and I saw a bunch of people from Mongaguá!!!! It was awesome!!!!! It´s been almost a year since I have been there, and I did not speak portuguese hahahaha

The pictures explain everything :D

Love you all!!!  I´ll write more next week :D

ELDER HOLLAND CAME TO MY MISSION!!!!

I don´t even know how to describe this week.

Tuesday we had the most amazing thing ever!! ELDER HOLLAND CAME TO MY MISSION!!!! It was WONDERFUL!!! He taught us so many things!!! I would like to share a couple of things. Imagine if Jesus Christ was walking with us as we went throughout our day, Imagine if Heavenly Father was at our side during our hardest moments, would we think that we are invincible? That nothing is impossible? I know I would!!! Then Elder Holland mentioned something interesting. We have the Holy Ghost with us. He isn´t just a companion, just a comforter, he is a God that we have received as a gift from our Father in Heaven. WOW. I have always loved having the Holy Ghost with me, but I don´t think that I have always fully understood WHO HE IS and WHAT HE CAN DO to help me in my life. With Him I should feel invincible, that NOTHING is impossible!!! I think that sometimes we take advantage of this gift that we have. I am trying now to notice more how he helps me and how I can be more worthy to have his presence.

Elder Holland also gave a devotional for all the members in our mission that night and it was so cool! He told a story about his dad and how he was inactive and he returned to church. It was super cool!!! He was showing that no one is lost and that we can really help to rescue the members of our ward!!!

Saturday we had a Family Home Evening with Marcos and Patrícia and their friends who are members. It was SUPER AWESOME!! I taught them how to make snickerdoodles and we had a lesson and fun activity. We are waiting for the papers to change their stately union to be marriage. Then they are going to be baptized :D YAYAYAY They are so amazing!!

Sunday Marcos and his son João Pedro came to church but Patrícia didn´t come because the baby was sleeping :/ but they loved it! I ended up teaching gospel principles because the teacher couldn´t make it, but it was super good!!!!

I want to write A TON more things about Elder Holland but I don´t have time so I´ll write a little more next week!!!

Really strive this week to listen to the spirit and really understand WHO HE IS, and HOW HE CAN HELP YOU!!! The Lord said it was better to have the spirit than to see an angel. IMAGINE that! HE IS IMPORTANT!!

Love you all!!

Sister Peterson

Pictures : 

A family from our ward is moving. The mom isn´t a member but she couldn´t get baptized because she was living with someone. But they are seperating and she is moving to the north. TShe already found where the chapel is there and she is going to go and get baptized! I am so excited for her!!!

Our FHE with Marcos and Patrícia and the Lira Family.
I taught them how to make snickdoodles and we had a fun activity for the lesson!! It was a super success!!!!!

Sister Mio made us peruvian food!! We ate ceviche. It´s fish that you eat raw but you put lime in it so the lime kind of cooks it. IT WAS SUPER YUMMY!!!!!! yayyyy

It´s THIS WEEK!!!!

YAAYYYY!!!

Manuel and Aurecí are getting married and baptized this weekend!!! It´s going to be WONDERFUL!!! I am SUPER excited :D I attached some pictures of them!!!!

They are amazing and they are super excited! It is going to be a wonderful experience for them!!! Manuel is really excited to get baptized! He asked how long he has to wait to get sealed in the temple!! We told him a year but he is excited that he can also go for other things before hand. It is going to be a great weekend!!!

Speaking of, it´s going to be kind of crazy too!! We have 2 weddings, a baptism, and Mormon helping hands, and a Christmas cantata all on Saturday!!! We will somehow do it all!! haha I´m up for the challenge!!!!

This week we had 2 cantatas in different areas so Sis. Calleja and I were traveling a lot! But it has been good!!! The one last night was interesting because the low d on the piano didn´t work HAHA. Sis Sweet and I play a bunch of the songs together on the piano and it was hard to not play the D. But it turned out well!!!! My vocal chords are being fried but i think I will be able to hold it out. We have 12 more. And the last one is here in my area!! SO I´m excited about that!! 

So I was studying a lot this week in 2 Nephi and Isaiah talks a lot about the 2nd coming and signs that we should look for. Then in gospel principles it was the same lesson!!! It is super cool that we can see some of these signs coming to pass right now!!! I love how true the scriptures are! The prophecies are happening RIGHT NOW!! And we are helping!! Isn´t that exciting???

Well I love you all!!! Stay strong and always look to the Lord

Sister Peterson

Soo, my new area!!!! Yayyyyy

All 4 of us are new so we are trying to find our way around in the new area. It is super fun and we are loving it!! The members are already awesome. They already gave us rides :D yay haha

The sisters left us a couple that they were working with!!! Aurecí and Manoel. They are an older couple and Manoel is doing therapy from an accident where he was paralized, but he is able to walk slowly with a cane!!!! They are going to get married on the 29th and baptized on the 30th!!! We are SUPER excited to work with them :D  I already love them!!!!!

This week has been a lot of planning and getting to know the area and members, I am exicted for this next week!!!

Friday we has zone conference with the President! Talk about amazing!! we learned SOOO much!!!!!!! We learned a lot about teaching and how the Spirit is the great teacher. We have to remember to listen and observe more, that's what makes a good teacher. 

Sunday (yesterday) we performed our first Christmas Cantata in the 2nd ward in São Vicente. WOW so an Elder was stuck in traffic and an accident on the bus and he sings in 2 duets and a quartet, sooo we taught another Elder his part in the 2 songs of the quartet, another Elder sang one of his duets and sister Cabral came up to me asking me to sing the other duet....WHAT???? IT was O Holy Night, but in Portuguese...I do not know the words in Portuguese so she told me to sing my part in English. IT WAS SOO FUNNY!!!! She wanted me to do this walk thing, but the air conditioning was broken so there was a huge fan that blew into my microphone while I was singing and blew all my hair in my face HAHAHA but it turned out okay. It all ended up working out!!!

This morning we did a thanksgiving feast :D I made pumpkin pie, from an actual pumpkin and it turned out good!!! haha it was a super fun!!!!! yay for traditions :D

I love you all!!!

Sister Peterson

TRANSFERS!!!!!

Sooooo we were all transfered!! All 4 of us!!! Crazy right?? ANd 4 new sisters are coming to take our place!!!

I got transfered to Casqueiro and I will be with Sister Tabraj. She is cool!!! She is form peru/brazil so that is going to be fun!!! She got here when I was in my 2nd area so she´s been out for a while!!! I am excited to work with her in our new area. The same thing is happening there. 4 sisters are leaving and we and Sister Calleja and her new greenie are getting there. It is going to be a fun transfer!!!!!!!!!!

BUt AMAZINGNESS happened yesterday!!! Soooo, Gabriel was confirmed :D and Marcos passed the sacrament for the first time!! He did perfectly!!!!!!!! 

Also bishop had gone out for his birthday on Saturday and there were left overs and they thought, "i think Sister Peterson would enjoy this" they gave us barbeque ribs :D IT WAS SOO YUMMY!!!! haha

We made cookies this weekend with Michelle and Cauan and Mateus and it was super fun!! They loved them!!!

We also had Mormon Helping Hands where we had a bunch of free classes at the church but there was barely anyone, so we sent the youth out on the street to do contacts!! They are oging to be amazing missionaries!! We eneded up bringing in a bunch of people :D

Tuesday we had an amazing FHE with Marcos and Patrícia and Sandra and Alfredo Diz Diz. It was sooo much fun!!! We had great lessons and then we played PIT!! Haha good memories

MOnday we had zone p-day and it was SUPER FUN!!!! We played ping pong, played HORSE with a basketball and we played dodgeball with water balloons. It was a BLAST!!! haha good times :D

I´m trying to send pictures of everything :D haha

Love you all!!!!!

Remember to always look for the blessings in your life everyday :D